Dusk Rides

February is nearing a close, and here in Georgia, visible signs tell us that spring is hot on its heels. The days are suddenly hotter (without guarantee they'll stay that way), and the evenings are soft with warm, humid breezes. 

As this Sunday wound down, the evening approaching, I was lured away from dropping seeds into warm soil to hop on my bicycle for a ride through the last remnants of light. This was the perfect day, the perfect time to take a ride. Everyone was inside, busy with early dinners and preparations for Monday. So I had the streets to myself. With virtually no cars to avoid and a sweet stillness, I could cruise through the evening air unbothered.

Connections

I've recently mentioned here and across other social media that I'm finally getting the ball rolling with both my dormant YouTube channel and Patreon feed.

 

I'm thrilled to be flexing some creative muscles that I wasn't sure I was ready to use. But in the process of creating new content in new ways, I'm realizing that it's not a far cry from what I've already been doing, and actually feeding my inspiration to create even more. It reminds me of a quote attributed to Pablo Picasso: "inspiration exists, but it has to find you working", meaning, you don't gain inspiration being idle, you start, and then the ideas start flowing. Crazy, right? 

Monday on Target- Focusing!

The other day something made me realize that I forgot to plan. Yeah, that sounds pretty silly.

Many of us are good at setting goals and putting new things into practice, like exercise, reading, starting a garden, etc. But then we get busy and sometimes lose sight of what we meant to do and why we started.

I've had success with something that I'm sure many people dispel as "hokey", silly, or pointless. But for me, it's been effective- I've seen results. And with new developments in my personal and professional lives, it occurred to me that I was falling off in one area in particular. One that seems to affect all the other areas. My vision boards. 

About Faces

coincidence: my face for #womenempoweringwomen 
trending recently on Instagram

Recently I launched my very first virtual art exhibit. After some planning, writing, and more editing than I initially bargained for, it was finally live online. Not just with art, but with interactive links and info related to the content. The name of the show is "Faces", and the topic is, well, faces. 

I created it in response to the cancellation of in-person events caused by the pandemic, and to the surge of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Pandemic Living

Recent weeks mired in the mess of a global pandemic have basically meant an upheaval of life as we know it. For some of us.

What I mean by that is that as a professional artist, introvert, (okay,  add Scorpio to the list of offenses), and general homebody, the idea of staying/working/eating/exercising/existing from home is, by no means a stretch. It's actually pretty routine for me, (and many of my introverted artist friends!). Don't get me wrong, I love to explore, interact with other humans, get fresh air as much as the next person. But doing all the major things of life from home is not uncommon for me, it's sometimes preferred.

Throw a Blog a Bone

Okay, so I know I'm overdue to throw this blog some action. It has been far too long for someone like me, who actually enjoys writing. So I thought I'd share a thought I was having about my work this week. As an artist, I've had to experiment with different disciplines over the years, to find the ones I was most passionate about, hone the ones that stuck, and build on them.

Part of my artistic growth over the years has involved taking commissioned projects and freelance work. For the sake of gaining experience, and earning a living, I have done creative work all over the spectrum of possibilities.

Things I Make for Me: Nesting Instincts

What is it about a rainy Sunday at home that inspires a certain range of activities for me? Reading, relaxing, snoozing, and today, nesting. Post late morning coffee and a few magazines, I found myself drawn to clean up and pretty up a little corner in my bedroom. This corner was already a spot that held a nightstand and a little gallery of elders. A sort of abstract family tree of parents, grands, and great grandparents, arranged in a manner loosely guided by feng shui (courtesy of Google University) to watch over and inspire me. Today I carefully disassembled most of it, cleaned and dusted, and reassembled with some additions. I was already happy with this corner, but allergies and ideas motivated me to address the state of it. Here it is now, clean and reworked.

 

It is still a work in progress, and I hope to find more old pictures to add. As a bonus, I had the time to clean the dust off of the ceiling fan in said room. I'm NOT lazy about cleaning, lol. In fact, the control freak in me requires that I clean throughout the week. But, like pretty much everybody else, I'm always busy.

But home is my sanctuary, my escape. So I'm happy to have found time to make it even more comfy. And now back to my regularly scheduled Sunday stuff. Which, after I wrote this, involved me concocting an apple pie cinnamon roll cake thingee from my overactive imagination for my sister-in-law's birthday. So much for a lazy Sunday (what is wrong with me?), lol.

Throwback: A Rare Repro

Recently I did a rare recreation of an old watercolor painting for a customer. I say rare, because I almost never revisit paintings. I guess I feel I might not be able to capture the spirit of the original. 

But I took this on partly because this is a long-standing loyal customer, and partly because I wanted to see if I could do it, maybe improve on it armed with greater experience and knowledge. Of myself, the subject matter, and some of the natural elements in the composition. 

For reference to the original, I used the only print of this painting that I have in stock. My approach was to block in things just like the original, then see if I felt like adding a little something as far as color, lighting, form, etc. Here's the process in a few photos.

print next to new sketch

starting color wash

details

fleshing out the background

finally, the hands

done!

I have to say that I was surprised that I didn't end up altering much. Given more time, I might have done so, but since there were constraints and a budget in place, I had to find a stopping point. Also, I could now imagine recreating other versions of this concept. Learn more about the inspiration behind this piece and purchase the print I have available in my store at the link below. 

Walls of Wisdom

If you hit a wall, stop. Common sense, right? 

More than good advice for everyday life, this nugget of wisdom applies to things in my studio, too.

Years ago as I attempted to develop discipline and greater stamina in my work, this approach emerged. I would be attempting to complete a project within a set time frame, but would often hit a stalemate before I could finish. I was surrounded by pieces that had been started and completely abandoned. Even work that had begun highly charged with inspiration, motivation, and a feeling of urgency to see it done would sometimes come to a crossroads of not knowing "what next?".

Thankfully, for the sake of my sanity, I began what I refer to in my mind as "flitting". 

Picasso reportedly once said 

"inspiration exists, but it has to find you working". 

That concept resonates with me to my very depths, and has proven true for me over and over. When I hit a wall with one project or piece, I simply "flit" around my studio, spending time on others until a solution, answer, lightning bolt, whatever, comes to me about the one that has stalled out. I get to continue the joy of creation, without banging my head against said wall. And I get to still feel productive. It is the main reason that on any given day, I could walk into my studio and fiddle with one or several of ten or more works-in-progress and get creative satisfaction. One gets some paint, one gets details sculpted, one gets photographed, one gets finished and put away till it's sold (and so on and so forth).

Nothing forced creatively ever really works out well (for me, at least). So, for years now, it has been common procedure in my studio to just STOP. And fix or focus on something else entirely. Just let it go. It works like a charm! And I'm getting better at it all the time.

How do you/would you apply this approach?

Photographic Inspiration

I haven't posted here in quite a while, as the business of being an artist/business person has consumed much of my time! A recent chain of events made a brief pause necessary. And within that pause, I was able to take a moment for myself to just look around and notice little things. While I try to do that every single day, I don't always have time to take pictures, make mental notes, and just absorb. 

The other morning I could/did. And I wanted to share my pictures, which, to me are visual notes. Taken in downtown Atlanta on one block of the city:

Prayed for Rain

If I can be a bit transparent for a sec... While I've been busying myself with orders and new projects over the past couple weeks, world and local events, and personal and professional expectations and goals have had me in a bit of a funk. I've also been thinking about those of us who need clean water, and those of us who just need precipitation after 40-some odd days of drought and damaging fires.

I get impatient when I can't make, do, or fix things for myself and the world around me the minute they emerge into my consciousness. I know that's not how it works, lol. Thankfully, in addition to a ridiculous level of obsessive, perfectionist thinking, I also have the gifts of flexibility, optimism, and resourcefulness. How's that for insanity? Surprisingly, it balances me out.

ANYway, last night and this morning, some much needed rain finally hit us in Georgia, softening the brittle, dry fall. Illuminating the vibrant leaves to their full potential. And, as it happens, adding to that cocktail of thoughts swirling in me to make the perfect creative tonic (as a creative, I NEED nature and rainy days). Rain is a total, cathartic balm sometimes, whether it's coming from the sky, from a source of inspiration, or from one's eyes.  And I'll take the rain as a sign of refreshing for me and my planet, to just keep going, keep helping, keep creating...

Passionate Harmony

The other day as I was prepping veggies for a pretty little salad, an image came to mind. It was inspired as I thought of how my passions often sort of overlap into and feed each other. As some might be well aware, if you ask any type of artist or creative person, they will likely tell you that they have other interests that may exist in harmony with their creative work. And actually, isn't that true of everyone, not just artists? One might be able to quickly discern from my blog, website, and social accounts that I'm an artist, and painting, sculpting, creating is pretty important to me. But some of my other passions include growing, prepping, [and eating] fresh, organic
food. building things and organizing, and snapping pics. I also love physical activity, and staying fit. And all these things seem to prove pretty useful to each other on a regular basis. I like to think that that's not accidental, and that we each have a toolbox of things we like or do well. And often the seemingly unrelated tools are used together for unique or special results. What are your passions and tools?